


Name

by youcantgettherefromhere



Category: Miami Vice (TV)
Genre: Backstory, Bisexual Sonny Crockett, Canon-Typical Behavior, Family Issues, Implied/Referenced Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Implied/Referenced Domestic Violence, Implied/Referenced Sex, Internalized Homophobia, Late Night Drives, Nicknames, Past Domestic Violence, Period-Typical Homophobia, Self-Worth Issues, This boy’s got a lot to work through, sanity maintenance, try not to crash that expensive car bro
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-08
Updated: 2021-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:22:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 928
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29914089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youcantgettherefromhere/pseuds/youcantgettherefromhere
Summary: A case brings up some old family wounds and Sonny takes a long drive (way too fast) to think them over.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 1





	Name

**Author's Note:**

> This one’s more recent. We never heard too much about Sonny’s family, but I got the impression it was not a healthy one, especially around his dad, so I tried to give that side of him a little sad backstory love. Late night drives are one of the few things keeping me sane so this was not hard to write

“Sleep well, partner,” and he opens the door, hops out, walks inside. Shuts the door behind him. The lights go on, and I see a silhouette through the curtain takin’ off a sharp jacket. At least he’ll get some sleep tonight.

I manage to tear my eyes away from the pale building for long enough to hit the gas, manage to think about him and not me for long enough to turn the Ferrari onto the two-lane road that takes me back to the marina. I’m not goin’ straight to the marina, but what’s it matter? No one who’s awake right now needs me around. Even Elvis is usually asleep by now.

I haven’t been able to breathe it out since Wednesday, not with the Boxley situation turnin’ hot and stayin’ that way for three whole days. At least there was something funny about it this time around - it ended with us runnin’ in on a fat British banker surrounded by the finest ladies of the night Miami could offer him. Next to all that, he looked whiter than the bad product he was dealin’ and almost as weak. But there was something personal about this time. Something weird.

Boxley’s contact up in Orlando who ratted him out was named John Marion. No relation to John Marion Crockett, but the name was close enough to make me freeze in place the first time I heard it and kick me even harder every time after that. Rico had his arm around my shoulders when Castillo was briefin’ us, and I know he could feel me tense up, but I still don’t think he knows why. Last time I told anybody my father’s full name, Caroline was asking me what to write on the Christmas card envelope.

It’s been three days since that meeting, so it’s been three days that I’ve been lightin’ one up or gunnin’ the engine or crackin’ a joke every time my mind strays too close to the past. Well, three days that I’ve been doin’ all that more than usual.

Red light. I stop, or maybe I don’t. It’s four in the morning and the streets are empty, no one’s in danger but me.

Daddy always hated his middle name. My gran would shout his full name out loud when he’d come to get us from her house and his face would go even redder than it already was from the liquor, he’d shout “Marion’s no name for a man” and me and Jake would make a quick exit. First place I learned to do that.

Once he sat us down and told us why we had the names we did. Jacob Wayne after our granddad and Daddy’s favorite actor, James Joseph after our mama’s two brothers. Men’s names for men’s men, nothin’ fancy or cute for Johnny’s sons. Never mind that Mama named me and nobody’s called me James since high school.

Speed bump. If Lou knew I was gonna beat the hell out of the Ferrari like this, he’d probably have given me a whole different cover.

Cover. Wasn’t every name a cover? My ID has “James” written on it, but that’s just who I was supposed to be. James is the good ol’ boy who comes home from the war just fine, marries a girl his mama likes, and settles down to be just like his old man, scarin’ the kids and drinkin’ too much and fishin’ with the same group of guys till he dies. Maybe I should’ve been around for Billy more, but I damn sure didn’t turn out the same way Daddy did.

And Burnett? That’s who I get paid to be, freezin’ cold in this heat and too damn paranoid to stick around anybody. No past, big future. Shoot first, questions later. At least playin’ to my worst urges gets me a fast boat and a nice watch. I’ll be lucky if I get to keep my partner much longer.

Even Sonny ain’t quite it, even though that’s who I’ve been since high school when that girl in my history class started calling me Sunny ‘cause she was jealous I was “sunshine blonde.” That name is for the best of me, the side of me that can’t help but put an arm around anybody that seems to need it, the professional who files his reports and the good time drinking buddy and the loyal friend. Maybe even the side of me that doesn’t care I play for both teams. The guy I’d be if I didn’t like to play with guns and drive too fast and feel too much.

Another red light. This time I do stop. This time it’s the wrong choice, ‘cause I’m in Little Havana and right across the street from me is Mike Orgel’s damn gas station.

That was a couple years after I started hangin’ up when Daddy called, but I still knew what he would’ve said to me if he knew what happened with Mike and Evan. The boy deserved it. Stay away from them sissies.

There was the night a few years back in Orlando where some college kid with pretty eyes picked me from the sidewalk and offered to suck me off behind that restaurant Keeler’s right hand man was runnin’. Halfway there, I heard him call me “daddy” around his mouthful and suddenly even his eyes couldn’t do it for me. Sorry, darlin’. Party’s over.

Beep. Headlights in my rearview. Who the hell’s drivin’ at this time of night?

I swing the car around the intersection and turn back.


End file.
